Hale, Islanders dealing with adversity on, off the court as season begins

Senior guard Joe Kilgore scored 35 points in the Islanders exhibition loss to Texas A&M-Kingsville and will be counted on for even more after the team lost guard Ehab Amin for the season.(Photo: Courtney Sacco)

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was dealt with a tough blow when it found out that midmajor All-American Ehab Amin would have surgery and likely be lost for the season.

A preseason All-Southland Conference first-team selection, Amin was arguably the focal point of the Islanders offense and defense coming into his senior year.

Instead, an already young team will be younger, as evidenced by the Islanders starting two true freshmen in Thursday's exhibition loss to Texas A&M-Kingsville.

A sudden change at his position is small compared to what Aransas Pass graduate Colin Hale, a sophomore guard for the Islanders and former All-South Texas MVP, saw after Hurricane Harvey hit his town.

"My immediate family managed to get through it pretty well, but my grandparents took it pretty hard," Hale said. "Lots of friend and family — my roommate's family — lost everything. He is from back home.

Texas A&M Corpus-Christi's Colin Hale(Photo: Contributed photo)

"Coach (Willis) Wilson and I have had a lot of conversations about trying to prepare mentally for the season with all that transpiring right at the beginning of the semester, and with practice starting. The guys have done a lot to help me and we've gone over to help clean up and help out. Things like that have really helped to cope with the situation."

Hale and his father went back the day after Harvey made landfall to survey the damage.

""It is one of those things you see other people go through and you never have that feeling or understand what to do until you are sitting in a car driving through the streets with a vision of all that has gone on," Hale said.

The Islanders sophomore credited the Coastal Bend communities for pulling together to help those hardest hit by the storm, for the progress that towns like Aransas Pass and Rockport and Fulton have made since the storm.

"Coach has been great through the whole process — not just to me but my whole family," Hale said. "He has done a good job of drawing parallels from the storm to things on the court and making that correlation between the two to the other guys."

The Islanders saw senior guard Joseph Kilgore score 35 points in the 82-80 exhibition loss to the Javelinas. Kilgore attempted 20 field goals and no other player attempted more than eight.

For now, A&M-Corpus Christi acknowledges a need to run offensively and defensively through Kilgore, the Islanders' most experienced player.

"We are going to have run a lot through Joe right now — leadership, offense, defense — it is going to be a heavy burden to carry right now," Wilson said. "I do think we have guys that are talented. I see flashes of a team that is capable of playing the way we want to play."

Hale said the coaches have worked with the young backcourt players on the team about taking a different approach, in hopes of speeding along the maturation of a young group.

Outside of Kilgore, the four guards that received the most playing time were either freshmen or sophomores in the exhibition loss.

"It is growing up fast, but that is why you do it," Hale said. "The coaches have done a great job, having conversations off the floor trying to get us to mature and think of the game in a different aspect, to help us mature faster when we are on the floor.

"The expectations haven't changed. We still want to win 20-plus games and make it to the postseason."

THREE THINGS TO WATCH

1. How will the Islanders compensate for the loss of Ehab Amin on defense? Amin's aggressiveness on defense as the national leader in steals set a tone for the Islanders and the team will need to find a new face of their ball pressure on the defense side of the floor. As the most experienced Islanders, that task will fall on Kilgore and Kareem South?

2. Who will rise from a talented group of young post players to earn the lion's share of the minutes? Sophomore Elijah Schmidt started the most games (12) of forwards not named Rashawn Thomas last year. True freshman Sean Rhea made a quick impression with a three-point play on his first possession in the American Bank Center, but fouled out in nine minutes in his debut. Perry Francois and York Benjamin will also figure into the mix along with Deion Rhea when he returns from injury.

3. Who will join Joe Kilgore as a consistent scorer? Kilgore will have to be attack-minded as he showed in the exhibition loss, but the Islanders were most successful last year when multiple players could get into a rhythm. Kareem South will have an opportunity to take a larger role in the offense, along with Sean Rhea and Schmidt.